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Tuesday April 12 is Equal Pay Day, a day to mark the slow progress in closing the persistent equal pay gap and the importance of eliminating employment discrimination. The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) released a new fact sheet on the occupational gender wage gap that shows women have lower median earnings than men in 107 out of 111 occupations, regardless of levels of education. The fact sheet, based on an analysis of median weekly wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is released annually by IWPR to mark Equal Pay Day.

Despite showing no signs of spending less in recent months, a new Deloitte survey found that nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of Americans believe higher prices could slow their spending in the months ahead. Deloitte's study also revealed that mobile and social connections are helping shoppers make savvier buying decisions in the wake of the recession.

American voters want elected officials to take bold steps to decrease the federal budget deficit and debt, and they won’t accept any excuses for failing to do so, according to a survey released today by FreedomWorks. Likely voters overwhelmingly support balancing the budget within 10 years and taking immediate action to address the impending entitlement crisis while opposing plans to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

CoreLogic, a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its February Home Price Index (HPI) which shows that home prices in the U.S. declined for the seventh month in a row. According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed sales, declined by 6.7 percent in February 2011 compared to February 2010 after declining by 5.5 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 0.1 percent in February 2011 compared to February 2010 and by 1.4 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

Consumer confidence fell for the second straight month in March, as high gas prices correlated with discouraging consumer views about the direction of the U.S. economy, according to the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor.

America’s wind power industry grew by 15% in 2010 and provided 26% of all new electric generating capacity in the United States. With the 5,116 MW added last year, U.S. wind installations now stand at 40,181 MW, enough to supply electricity for over 10 million American homes.

Mortgage rates continued to rise this week, with the benchmark conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate rising to 5.08 percent, according to Bankrate.com's weekly national survey. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.41 discount and origination points.

The percentage of Americans age 12 and older who have a smartphone has more than doubled in the past year, from 14 percent to 31 percent of the population according to the new national survey from Arbitron Inc. and Edison Research, The Infinite Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms.

Unemployment rates were lower in February than a year earlier in 308 of the 372 metropolitan areas, higher in 52 areas, and unchanged in 12 areas, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Fifteen areas recorded jobless rates of at least 15.0 percent, while 7 areas registered rates of less than 5.0 percent. Two hundred eighty-four metropolitan areas reported over-the-year increases in nonfarm payroll employment, 77 reported decreases, and 11 were unchanged. The national unemployment rate in February was 9.5 percent, not seasonally adjusted, down from 10.4 percent a year earlier.

Manager bullishness for emerging market equities fell dramatically and reached its lowest level since March 2009, according to the latest Investment Manager Outlook, a quarterly survey of U.S. investment managers conducted by Russell Investments. While 51 percent of managers responding to the survey are still bullish on the asset class, this figure represents a significant decline from the 71 percent who were bullish in the December 2010 iteration of the survey. Non-U.S. (developed market) equities also saw a notable drop in bullishness, decreasing 9 percentage points from the last survey to 49 percent.